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10 Unsung, Legally Streamable Halloween Anime

Go ahead-- take your pick and watch away. They're all openly available to you!

10 Unsung, Legally Streamable Halloween Anime

It's Halloween, everyone, and you know what that means: an plethora of lists of the top-ten monster/horror/cosplay/fantasy-themed anime for you to marathon this evening should you so choose. But there are a LOT of anime that you can watch that suits the theme of Halloween that won't get mentioned, so rather than create the standard list, full of the same old shows we all know like Hellsing and Vampire Hunter D, or worse, shows we can't legally watch yet, like Soul Eater and Kuroshitsuji, I thought I'd put together a list of ten lesser-known shows-- because they're less popular, or older --that you can legally stream this very evening on your computer, so you don't have to leave the house at all if you don't want.

You may notice the lack of shows from The Anime Network; this is because they mostly only have 1-3 episodes available for free of any given series, and I was aiming more for shows you could stream through in large chunks, if not in their entirety. That said, there's a LOT of awesome shows to sample there, including the strong first episode of recent acquisition Ghost Hound, or the first four episodes of Petshop of Horrors, so you should definitely take a look.

Available at Hulu (dubbed). This 2003 anime adaptation of the Tezuka manga was created for the 40th anniversary of the original. Some fans weren't into the English dub of this particular show, but this is still easier to get your hands on than the original!

Available at Crunchyroll. Eve no Jikan (or Time of Eve) is set in a world not unlike Astro Boy's, in which humans and robots live side-by-side, but not in equality. The events take place at a bar in this world which refuses to discriminate between the two, allowing robots to hide their status rings and other perks. Here, robots begin to show signs of wanting to earn independence, but interact regularly with humans as well.

Available at Hulu (subbed) and FUNimation's site (dubbed and subbed). I've profiled this series before, but if you want a really well-done collection of ghost stories with a touch of ongoing personal story arc along the background, it would be hard to find something as strong as the recent anime adaptation of the Ghost Hunt light novels.

Available at FUNimation's video site. Okay, so it's not so terribly unsung, but how many Halloween lists will it pop up on? Nonetheless the show has a remarkably peaceful "fall" feel to it, as well as fantasy elements and being a period piece (more or less), so it would make a great relaxing Halloween watch.

Available at Crunchyroll. Whether you love or despise what Gonzo does in its literary adaptations such as this-- based on the Count of Monte Cristo, but set in space! Kinda! --Gankutsuou is one of the most visually striking anime I've seen in the last few years. Besides which, unlike the original novel of revenge, the focus here is on the relationship between the Count and the son of his target of vengeance.

Available at FUNimation's video site. Another fantasy period piece, but about as different from Spice and Wolf as possible-- in fact, "Baccano!' literally means noise or ruckus (in Italian). The story revolves around a group of (neary) immortal alchemists fighting for their lives-- and the elixir that made them immortal in the first place.

Available at Crunchyroll. A lot of people don't realize that Black Jack didn't get made into a TV anime until 2004-- and you can watch 28 of the ~60 episodes at Crunchyroll right now. As you should know, the series revolves around a rogue doctor who performs high-risk surgeries without the approval of the Medical Board, who object to his exorbitantly high fees as well as the dangerous surgeries he performs. It's less supernatural, but believe me, there's plenty of horrors...

Available at Hulu. A living corpse-- a woman who died, but lives on, not quite in the traditional Zombie way --must destroy 108 other living corpses in order to gain entry into heaven in this gruesome horror series.

Available at Crunchyroll. I keep hearing excellent things about this series, which revolves around a guy who's trying to set right all the horrible things his grandmother did to demons, so I think this one's on MY watch list for tonight!

Natsumeeeeee! It's one of my all time favorite series. The episodes always touch my heart. I've watched it several times. The one about the little fox boy makes me cry every time. (and some are pretty scary too!)

Honestly, some are a bit of a stretch to Halloween anime, but having to deal with what's available to stream, I get it. Curse Funi and their new no-non American streaming policy. Their own silly slip-up that caused it to change.

@John_Martone: Yeah, I always thought it sounded cool, but really haven't gotten a chance to watch it. We should stream through a few episodes of a bunch of these-- I remember you expressing interest in Black Jack, and I keep meaning to see more Baccano as well.

You know, this sort of gives me an idea for an article. A discussion of how we get official subtitles versus fan subs. Not necessarily on one specific series, but as a whole.

Fan subs, while often very dependable, don't always get it right. Sometimes they use the wrong names for things. Such as with series as Black Lagoon and Spice and Wolf(No worries. I'm not going to go into "DC" this time.). In some fan subs they would call her Levy, despite the Japanese series spelling her name in English as Revy. In Spice and Wolf, I really thought her name was suppose to be Horo, until I saw on the Japanese site they spelled it Holo.

Though, fan subs do often give better protection of certain themes and names then official subtitles do. They often have a better ear to what the fans want to see.

The key for me is what the source material is intending to be. It's good how fan subs stay more loyal to the source material, but what about when they are just wrong on the facts of the matter?